Hungary

[HU] Publication of Guidelines concerning Protection of Minors in the Broadcast Media

IRIS 2002-10:1/31

Márk Lengyel

Körmendy-Ékes & Lengyel Consulting, Budapest

On 18 October 2002 the Országos Rádió és Televízió Testület (Hungarian National Radio and Television Commission- ORTT) published a communication to the broadcasters on guidelines concerning protection of minors. The publication of the communication was a consequence of the adoption of Act No. XX of 2002 amending Act No I of 1996 on Radio and Television Services (Broadcasting Act, see IRIS 2002-8: 8).

By this amendment the system protecting minors had been fundamentally changed, and a new set of much more detailed provisions replaced the former corresponding rules. According to the provisions recently entered into force, the broadcasters have to classify their programmes into five categories according to their potential to harm the development of minors. The act describes the criteria of the individual categories only briefly, defining their detailed description as an obligation of the ORTT. The present communication was adopted in order to meet this obligation.

The communication also gives detailed guidelines to broadcasters on how to properly mark the classified programmes. It should be noted that according to the Hungarian rules the mark identifying a classified programme should be displayed throughout the whole duration of the programme in question.